JOINT POLICING MEETING REPORT

JOINT POLICING MEETING REPORT

With Clonakilty Town Council due to establish a Joint Policing Committee shortly, Cllr. Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin organised a public information meeting on the topic last Wednesday evening, (14^th October) at O’ Donovan’s Hotel. It was arranged at short notice, and clashed with the Ireland soccer game as well as numerous other meetings on the same night, which meant a small crowd.

However, it was a mixture of business people and residents many of whom have been victims of deliberate vandalism in the town centre area in recent times. Two have had their shop windows broken on Saturday nights; another has had her premises targeted with glasses and bottles used as missiles, resulting in damaged windows. The issue of town centre residents being unable to sleep most weekend nights until the early hours due to noise levels on the streets, as well as large unruly groups renting certain holiday homes was also raised at the outset. Anti social behaviour and street fighting are a weekly occurrence.

The noise and speed of “boy racer” cars around the streets and car parks was identified by a number of other people, as was the total disregard for the byelaws against public drinking. The organiser also outlined his belief that there is a substantial drug presence now in the town which is worrying. Everyone expressed their frustration that the same issues have been ongoing for years, with seemingly very little proactive approach by the relevant authorities to confront them seriously. These issues affect not only residents, but are also a very bad advertisement when seen by tourists to the town.

Cllr. Ó Súilleabháin outlined that the council has had a “Public Order Sub Committee” in place for around five years, but said that it is a “useless talking shop” that has irregular meetings, with no improvements on most issues raised at them. He felt that there is great merit in the new Joint Policing Committee’s “if all participants enter into a spirit of co-operation to admit the problems and work together honestly to try to resolve them”.

The JPC will be made up of all nine town councillors, two Garda reps, two council officials, three Oireachtas members and three reps from the voluntary and community sector. He explained that all the parts of the jigsaw are now in place except the three community reps. People had until last Friday (16^th) to propose/put their own names forward. From all these, three will be selected at the November Council meeting on 3^rd. The JPC will be a statutory body and will be obliged to meet regularly in an open forum, with formal agendas and minutes.

The councillor said there will be accountability, in that the various sections represented on it will be asked to account for progress and the JPC will be obliged to organise a public meeting at least once a year to account for it’s work. As well as that, the general public can attend its meetings as observers.